May 25th, 2011 by Oman Views

TUNIS (Reuters) – The wife and daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi crossed over the border into Tunisia several days ago, a Tunisian security source said on Wednesday.

Gaddafi’s wife Safia and his daughter Aisha came to Tunisia with a Libyan delegation on May 14 and are on the island of Djerba in the south, the source told Reuters.

“It was expected that they would leave yesterday but they are still at Djerba,” the source added.

It did not appear that the two women had been traveling with Shokri Ghanem, Libya’s top oil official, who is believed to have also crossed into Tunisia and appears to have defected.

Libyan officials in Tripoli were not immediately available for comment.
Since the revolt began in February against Gaddafi’s rule, Aisha Gaddafi has made several public appearances backing her father and attacking the rebels and Western powers trying to overthrow him.

A month ago she appeared at her father’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli and addressed cheering crowds of supporters in an event broadcast live on Libyan state television.

“Talk about Gaddafi stepping down is an insult to all Libyans because Gaddafi is not in Libya, but in the hearts of all Libyans,” she said.

A lawyer by training, Gaddafi’s daughter runs a charitable foundation and in 2004 joined a team of lawyers defending former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

By Tarek Amara. Additional reporting by Christian Lowe, Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Maria Golovnina

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March 1st, 2011 by Oman Views

TUNIS, Tunisia – Tunisia’s interim president chose a former government minister as a new prime minister on Sunday, appealing for a return to calm following new violent protests that have been hobbling this North African country since the ouster of its long-time autocratic leader.

Beji Caid-Essebsi will replace Mohammed Ghannouchi, who resigned earlier Sunday after becoming a major irritant to Tunisians behind the so-called “Jasmine Revolution” that toppled autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali last month and sparked a wave of upheaval in the Arab world.

The caretaker president, Fouad Mebazaa, made the appointment later Sunday.

As Ben Ali’s prime minister for 11 years, Ghannouchi became the emblem of an entrenched old guard that many Tunisians feared were hijacking their revolution.

It was not immediately clear how much the shake-up would mollify the protesters in Tunisia, at a time when its leaders are attempting to rebuild its tourism industry and cope with an influx of Tunisians and others fleeing from violence in neighboring Libya.

The change in the government’s leadership follows renewed street protests. Officials said that at least five people have died in violent street protests since Friday.

Ghannouchi had previously vowed to stay on to guide Tunisia until elections could be organized this summer.

As he stepped down, Ghannouchi sought to take the high ground.

“This (resignation) is not a flight from my responsibilities, but to open the way for another prime minister who – I hope – will have more margin for action than I have had, to give hope to the Tunisian people,” he said.

“I am not ready to be the man of repression, and I will never be,” Ghannouchi said, warning that unspecified forces appeared to be swelling to try to quash the move toward democracy.

Caid-Essebsi is an elderly statesman and lawyer who served in government posts under the Tunisia’s two longtime leaders since it gained independence from France in 1956: Habib Bourguiba and Ben Ali.

Ben Ali was driven from power on Jan. 14 and fled to Saudi Arabia following weeks of a deadly popular uprising that has fanned similar upheaval across the Arab world.

Some Tunisians believe that Ben Ali loyalists in the country have sought to sow discord and discredit the movement that brought the former authoritarian leader down.

“There needs to be reconciliation among all Tunisians to show the world that Tunisia is a civilized country,” Ghannouchi said. “My resignation will help create this new atmosphere.”

The Interior Ministry, in a statement Saturday, blamed “provocateurs” for fomenting violence in otherwise peaceful rallies and for allegedly using young people as human shields in renewed demonstrations.

On Saturday, police and troops backed by tanks used tear gas to disperse hundreds of youths protesting against the caretaker government. Officers were seen chasing some youths through town after the rally ended.

Authorities then ordered a temporarily ban on vehicle and pedestrian traffic on the capital’s central Bourguiba Avenue until midnight Sunday – the first of its kind since Ben Ali’s downfall.

On Friday, police fired tear gas and warning shots as violence erupted alongside a sit-in that drew tens of thousands of protesters near the seat of the interim government.

Officials said nearly 200 people were arrested over the last two days.

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By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press

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February 19th, 2011 by Oman Views

LAMPEDUSA, Italy (AFP) – Italy said on Sunday it was planning to deploy its security forces in Tunisia to stop a wave of immigrant arrivals, as coastguards intercepted another 1,000 immigrants from the North African state.

“I will ask Tunisia’s foreign minister for authorisation for our forces to intervene in Tunisia to block the flux,” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni of the anti-immigration Northern League party said in a television interview.

“The Tunisian system is collapsing,” said Maroni, speaking ahead of Tunisian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abderraouf Ounais’s visit expected on Thursday.

“I have asked for urgent intervention by the European Union because the Maghreb is exploding,” Maroni added, referring to the North Africa region.

“Europe is not doing anything…. As usual we’re on our own,” he said.

A total of around 5,000 Tunisian migrants have landed on dozens of small fishing boats in the past five days on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, which usually has just 6,000 residents and is struggling to cope.

“It’s out of control,” Lampedusa mayor Bernardino De Rubeis told reporters as boats continued to arrive on the tiny island, which at just 110 kilometres (68 miles) from Tunisian shores is closer to North Africa than to Italy.

A calm sea and good weather have favoured conditions for the Mediterranean crossings, which come after the fall of Tunisia’s veteran ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14 and the ensuing weeks of social unrest and lawlessness.

Italian authorities have begun airlifting many of the undocumented immigrants from Lampedusa to detention centres in Sicily and on mainland Italy, but police estimate that more than 2,000 of them remain on the island.

Hundreds have had to sleep out in the open at the port because of a lack of facilities on the island, while others have been put up in local hotels.

“The situation is very difficult,” the harbour master, Antonio Morana, told reporters. He said 977 people had landed so far on Sunday and more were coming.

Italy’s cabinet on Saturday declared a humanitarian emergency in the area.

A government statement said that the decision to call an official emergency would enable civil protection officers “to take immediate action needed to control this phenomenon and assist citizens who have fled from North Africa.”

In comments to the Corriere della Sera daily on Sunday, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said: “We have to mobilise Mediterranean countries that have boats, planes and helicopters” to patrol the Tunisian coastline.

Frattini and Maroni appealed for immediate assistance from the European Union’s Warsaw-based border security agency, Frontex.

Maroni said that immigrants were fleeing poverty but that there were also escaped convicts and “figures from terrorist organisations” among them.

A young Tunisian migrant, meanwhile, drowned and another was reported missing when a boat carrying 12 people sank on Saturday off southeast Tunisia en route to Europe, the official Tunisian TAP agency said.

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